Meet XIV ECMNP speakers

She obtained her PhD in Pharmacognosy from the University of Strasbourg in 2010. She then worked with Dr. G.F. Pauli at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she implemented counter-current chromatography (CPC) methods and quantitative NMR analyses for the characterization of bioactive molecules in trace quantities. Since 2019, she is a CNRS research scientist at the Mediterranean Institute for Biodiversity and Ecology (IMBE) in Marseille, France. Working at the interface between marine chemical ecology and natural product chemistry, she leads research projects involving in situ SPE technics, MS- and NMR-based metabolomics for the characterization of specialized (exo)metabolites produced by sessile marine invertebrates. These projects aim to sustainably access to marine chemodiversity from seawater, investigate metabolic changes under global change scenarios, and further decipher chemical mediation between species

He is a Senior Researcher at the Institute of Biomolecular Chemistry of the National Research Council of Italy, specializing in marine chemical ecology. Having conducted extensive fieldwork, including global diving expeditions, he has made substantial contributions to our understanding of marine chemical diversity. He has co-authored 147 publications exploring the ecological roles of marine natural products, their evolutionary history, and their potential technological applications. His current research interests encompass investigating marine biological invasions by a chemoecological approach and developing a satisfactory narrative on the evolution of chemical communication during the transition from aquatic to terrestrial life.

Federica Casolari is a postdoctoral researcher at the Marine Biodiscovery Centre within the University of Aberdeen, working on the discovery of novel antimicrobial peptides from the marine environment for the BlueRemediomics project (Grant No. IFS 10061678). Federica has recently obtained a PhD in Chemistry and Molecular Biology, where she developed an enzymatic system for methacrylate intermediates and esters. This project was in collaboration with an industrial partner which sparked her interest in patents and intellectual property law. As an integral part of her postdoctoral project, while furthering her career development, Federica combines her scientific background with her global policy interests, providing scientific advice on matters related to conservation of ocean biodiversity, such as the BBNJ Agreement.

A full professor in organic chemistry leads the BlueChemistryLab group, which focuses on natural products, drug discovery from microorganisms, and the impact of climate change on cyanobacterial blooms. She has published 115 papers, written numerous reviews, and oversees the Summer School on Natural Products, a key program of the Italian Chemical Society. As Vice-rector for Erasmus Programs and Vice-president of the European University Foundation, she enhances mobility experiences. She recently became the principal investigator of a MUR-funded transnational program, coordinating a consortium of 29 universities.

Justin J.J. van der Hooft is an Assistant Professor in Computational Metabolomics in the Bioinformatics Group at Wageningen University & Research, NL, and an author of >100 peer-reviewed articles in the metabolomics field. Justin is very fascinated by the ingenuity of nature in creating marvellous chemical structures. He obtained his PhD (2012) in Systematic Metabolite Annotation and Identification at the Biochemistry and Bioscience groups in Wageningen. Since 2020, his team has been developing computational metabolomics strategies to decompose mass spectral data into structure and substructure information. By linking genome and metabolome mining, his team studies plant, food, and microbiome-associated metabolites to find novel bioactive metabolites. Recently developed tools include MS2Query to perform analogue search, FERMO to effectively and reproducibly prioritize metabolite features and profiles, and NPLinker to streamline integrative omics mining. Since 2022, he is also a Visiting Professor in Johannesburg.

Got interested? Find out more and meet the team here: https://vdhooftcompmet.github.io.

Dr. Altmann holds a PhD in organic chemistry from Basel University. After 13 years in the pharmaceutical industry, he become full professor at ETH Zürich in 2003, working on natural product chemistry.

Dr. Carmen Cuevas joined PharmaMar in 1997, where she held various positions within the R&D Department. In 2003, she was promoted to her current role as VP of Research & Development, overseeing the department, which includes Drug Discovery, Medicinal Chemistry, Preclinical Development, and Intellectual Property. Among her notable achievements, Dr. Cuevas led the development of an innovative scaled synthetic process for Yondelis, as well as the development of Aplidin and Zepzelca.
Dr. Cuevas earned her PhD in Chemistry from the University of País Vasco and completed her post-doctoral training in the Pharmacology Department at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Alcalá de Henares (Madrid). She also holds a Master’s Degree (PDD) from IESE.
Dr. Cuevas has authored over 145 international scientific publications, filed 40 patent applications, and presented 70 communications at international congresses. Additionally, she has participated in more than 35 funded research programs.